[LINK] 'Smart' cars as fuel-efficient as hybrids

[Ivan Trundle]

Cars are not the issue.

In Australia, greenhouse emissions from cars is less than that of  
cows and sheep.

Granted, every bit helps, but we should focus our attention on the  
real polluters: coal-fired power stations, and electricity generation.

If every household installed just one compact fluorescent light to  
replace a single incandescent light, the savings in pollution is the  
equivalent of taking 130,000 cars off the road (all figures quoted  
from greenhouse.gov.au).

And we should convert all of our electric water heaters to gas for  
even more savings. And turn off electric devices left to idle on  
standby when not in use. These make measurable differences to our  
electricity consumption.

Interestingly, the use of electric vehicles in Australia is seen as  
counter-productive for our overall greenhouse gas emissions - at  
least until we bring clean-coal technology online.

Warmly

iT

On 15/05/2007, at 10:02 PM, Eleanor Lister wrote:

> Antony Barry wrote:
>>
>> On 13/05/2007, at 4:31 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>>
>>> And therefore, I suppose, since a hybrid uses petrol as well, it
>>> could be made more efficient by the same techniques...
>>
>> And if we also cut the speed limit and banned SUVs for city  
>> driving....
>>
>> Tony
>
> why not go the whole hog and ban all cars from cities?  public  
> transport
> can be effective, safe and cheap.
>
> i know this is heresy, but in a world of Peak Oil, it's just too damn
> useful to burn, it should be reserved for chemical feedstock.
>
> yes, you probably want to have some delivery vehicles running  
> about, and
> some taxis; but these could all be electric.
>
> the big advantage of electricity is that it comes from a handful of
> power stations, thus isolating the fuel/waste/pollution problem to a
> handful of places that can have money thrown at them to solve these
> problems, instead of cleaning up millions of cars including dodgy old
> rustbuckets.
>
> i know some folk will say that they live in places that never will  
> have
> much public transport, or they need to be able to go to various places
> by some whimsical route, so clean up their cars, let them  
> drive .... but
> keep them out of cities, have carparks at the transport nexii  
> around the
> edges of the cities.
>
> all these sorts of problems can be solved with a little careful
> planning, but we absolutely must stop pumping pollution into our  
> air ...
> and imagine the improvement in public health (and hence the associated
> costs) without the smog.
>
> regards,
>     EL
> ------------
> Eleanor Ashley Lister
> South Sydney Greens
> http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
> webmistress at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
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